Favorite Schools

Favorite Teams

Cleveland Browns' Ray Horton says his defense is tightening in crunch time: "We've failed the last three weeks''

Ray Horton on the recent 4th-quarter defensive collapsesCleveland Browns defensive coordinator Ray Horton talks about his units collapses in the last three games when the defense has given up 47 points in the fourth-quarter. The Browns could be 7-7 instead of 4-10 if the defense was able to get the other team off the field before scoring late in the game.

BEREA, Ohio -- Browns defensive coordinator Ray Horton prides himself on being a look-in-the-mirror kind of guy, and the man staring back at him can't deny that his defense has choked in the fourth quarter of the last three games.

"We have failed the last three weeks,'' said Horton. "You can not play well for three quarters and then come crunch time tighten up. We talk about being the backbone of the team, well, you can't do that. You don't do that. It's highly. …it's very disappointing.''

Horton acknowledged that some of his players are crumbling under the weight of a close game.

"I think as the games go on, there's more pressure to perform well and to not repeat a pattern that has happened in the past,'' he said. "So is there a psychological pressure affect? I think there is."

He said players might be pressing to make the kill shot at the end, and it shouldn't be that way. Corner back Joe Haden, who might sit out the Jets game with his hip-pointer, admitted Monday that he's been trying to go for the interception when perhaps a breakup would do.

"That could be,'' said Horton. "Somebody could be putting the reverse pressure of 'I'm going to do it' and then you get out of your gap and you do a different technique. But why would you ... we talk about every play is weighted the same, whether it's the first play or the last play of the game, to me it really doesn't make a difference. And I know for athletes it does, because as the clock ticks down, they do. There's a psychological affect on them but it shouldn't be that way.''

Safety Tashaun Gipson, who had two interceptions against the Bears including a pick-six, agreed that some players are psychologically freezing in the clutch.

"Oh absolutely. It's very evident,'' he said. "You see the guys out there and most of our games we're either winning in the fourth quarter or we're tied or we're not down by more than a field goal and I think that there's guys -- and maybe myself included and I'm not pointing any fingers -- but guys out there trying to do too much instead of trying to do their jobs.

"You might want to sit on routes thinking that play can change the game, you might want to jump outside the gap thinking that can change the game and I think this defense is fierce enough that if we all just play within the gameplan that it's going to be hard to score points on this defense. When we all settle down and play football as though we do the first three quarters, I think it's very evident that this defense is pretty ferocious.''

Gipson stressed that the way to bust out of the mental slump for each player to demand more of himself.

"I don't think it's nothing that the coaches can coach,'' he said. "I think it should just really start with us and coach Horton has really been on it this week more particularly than others and I think that it truly comes down to each and every individual that's going to have an impact on the game to truly just look at himself and say 'I've got to do my job and my job only. I can't worry about making a big play. If the play's going to come by me doing my job than so be it.'''

In each of the past three weeks -- all losses -- the defense led in the fourth quarter and then collapsed, sometimes in unfathomable fashion. To put it in perspective, opponents have scored four touchdowns in the final 2:17 of the last three games:

* In the 32-28 loss to Jacksonville, the Browns led 28-25 until Joe Haden gave up a 20-yard TD pass to Cecil Shorts with 40 seconds remaining.

* In the 27-26 loss to the Patriots, the Browns led 26-14 until Tom Brady threw two TD passes in the final 61 seconds.

* And in Sunday's 38-31 loss to the Bears, the Browns led 24-17 until the Bears scored three touchdowns in the final 10:59 of the game, including the gamewinner with 2:17 remaining.

Granted, Pro Bowl-caliber cornerback Joe Haden was out of the game with a hip-pointer when the Bears scored their three fourth-quarter TDs, but Horton isn't blaming the loss on that.

"I don't want to use any kind of excuse or crutch to say we're young or this and that,'' Horton said. "It's not acceptable at this point in the season. You have to do your job and you have to be accountable or at some point you move on.''

Overall, the defense has given up eight scores on nine fourth-quarter possessions over the past three games -- including six touchdowns -- for a total of 47 points. During that span, they've also produced only one fourth-quarter sack, no takeaways and seven penalties for 114 yards. The 47 points have catapulted the Browns into a first-place tie with Dallas for most fourth-quarter points allowed.

"Anytime you have a meltdown like that and you can potentially change the course of the season, it's frustrating,'' said Gipson. "If my memory serves me correctly, we could be 7-7 right now with a high possibility of going to the playoffs. Anytime you think about it, it's very frustrating. But at the end of the day, you really can't do anything about it but continue to move forward.''

The final-stanza meltdowns have led Horton to conclude that some of his players simply aren't doing their jobs at the end, and if it continues, they won't have a job to do much longer. The Browns have given up 24 touchdown passes the last nine games compared to only two in their first five.

"We've looked at our plays and we've talked about being clutch in the end and some of our players have really played at a Pro Bowl level,'' said Horton. "Tashaun Gipson had a Pro Bowl-level game and T.J. (Ward, a fumble-recovery for a touchdown) did. There are a lot of players playing at a high level and the word we used this week to talk to our players is accountability.

"We need somebody to step up and not take that backstep and say, 'I'm going to wait for somebody else to do it' and to me that's been the biggest disappointment as our big-time players play well but we also need our role players to do their role and whether that's being in the right gap or making tackle or knowing your assignment. There's too many guys playing at a high level for us to be successful for three quarters and then come crunch time or two minutes to kind of play differently."

Horton likened it to a basketball team relying on LeBron James to make the clutch play.

"Some of the guys will wait for LeBron to go and score in the fourth quarter,'' said Horton. "Well, Tashaun and T.J. played like they did but the rest of the guys are accountable to do your job. Now some of the job is assist and get the ball to them and get out of the way, block, rebound. Our guys' job is to know what to do and how to do it and make the tackle and not commit error. Just because the game is in the fourth quarter and the game is a 7-point game one way or another or tied, you can't tighten up and go, 'I'm going to do something different or I'm going to wait for somebody.'''

Horton was asked if the defensive collapses might hurt his chances of becoming a head coach next season. According to Peter King of Sports Illustrated, an NFL Panel including Tony Dungy and Bill Polian has recommended Horton and other minority coaches as quality candidates for top jobs next season. Last season, Horton interviewed for the Browns and Cardinals job, and thought he was a lock for the promotion in Arizona, a spot that went to Bruce Arians instead. Others recommended include Bears defensive coordinator Mel Tucker, former Bears coach Lovie Smith and Ravens offensive coordinator Jim Caldwell.

“I think out of respect for New York, for the Cleveland Browns, I think that’s probably a question that should be broached at the end of the year,'' said Horton. "It has no bearing on anything. It doesn’t help us prepare for New York, so if I could table that until the end of the year out of respect.”

Horton said it's not any one player stiffening at the end of the game.

"No. I think as you go back and look, if one guy was making the mistake, we would be good enough to say, 'well, he's not good ready, let's get him out and get someone else in,''' he said. "I think it's a combination of no turnovers, no sacks at crunch time. You can go down and have an 80-yard drive and you have to have some kind of negative play to get them off the field and that hasn't happened. We talk about turnovers. We created I don't know how many in the last couple weeks, but they were early in the game and there were (21) points scored in the fourth quarter when we needed (takeaways).''

Horton defended Haden, who's given up a touchdown pass in each of the past four games after surrendering only two in the previous 10 games.

"It's hard to go through a season, especially being a corner and not have a touchdown pass thrown on you because it's a passing league and the rules are the way they are,'' said Horton. "When you look at the body of his work, he's had a fantastic year, catching the ball, tackling, being smart doing that, and to go through the murderer's row that he's been on being on the top guy, not giving up a touchdown would be spectacular.''

Linebacker D'Qwell Jackson doesn't think the fourth-quarter collapses have become a mental thing.

"That’s a coach’s perspective,'' he said. "I’ll tell you what, we fight every snap. That’s not something that goes through our head. We’re trying to figure it out. That’s one thing we’ve been trying to harp on is finishing drives, finishing practice, finishing whatever we’re doing. That’s been the topic of discussion the last few weeks. Whatever reason we can’t seem to pull it together from a team aspect. Defensively, we’ve had some letdowns. To be a great defense, we can’t do that. These last few weeks, we’ve fallen out of the top five (No. 8) and we want to get back to that.''

Follow Us

cleveland.com is powered by Plain Dealer Publishing Co. and Northeast Ohio Media Group. All rights reserved (About Us).The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Northeast Ohio Media Group LLC.